Hosts to Ghosts Box Set

by Lynne Connolly

  When she came to, her body was still tensed. Her shoulders and her hips came into contact with the bed. The rest arched up to meet her lover, who was smiling down at her, enjoying her pleasure and claiming it for his own. “Fuck, you are the sexiest woman in existence,” he growled, curving one arm around her waist to drag her close. She curled her legs around his waist. He gasped, and she laughed, delighted she could give him some of his own back.

  She gripped him while he pistoned in and out of her, never pausing, drawing her higher all the time, toward a peak she wasn’t sure existed. Until she reached it. Her whole body tightened; every nerve, every muscle, and she opened her mouth and cried out, losing herself in the wonder of completion.

  Dimly she heard his breathless gasp when he joined her, then the warmth gushing into her.

  She must have slept for a moment. When she opened her eyes he was still there, watching her with an intensity she adored. It should have embarrassed her, this close regard. Karey never welcomed close personal scrutiny, but this time it seemed right. Nothing in his gaze reminded her she should be ashamed at revealing so much of herself.

  He touched her face, drawing his fingers gently down her cheek, to rest under her chin. “First,” he said, in a deep, intimate tone that sent shudders down her spine, “Never doubt that I love you. I will always love you, Karey. Second, know that we can’t stay together. We have to get over this, as people do sometimes, and move on with our lives separately. I tried to keep away, tried to keep you out of this, and when this is over, when I’m sure you’re safe, I’ll go away. I can’t stay with you.”

  “Why not? Is it this disease you told me about?”

  “No.”

  “Why then?”

  He sighed. “I’m different. Something happened to me in Paris that changed my life forever.”

  She recalled why he’d gone to France. “You mean vampires exist? You met one?”

  He nodded. “Vampires exist. You’re in bed with one, Karey.”

  She lifted her hand and touched him, cupping his cheek. He dropped his hand to lie on her waist, but made no attempt to draw her close or to caress her.

  “What happened?”

  He took a deep breath and looked her straight in the eyes, hiding nothing. “I went to see Gillespie Cornell and he attacked me. When one vampire creates another, it’s at the expense of his own life. A vampire must drain someone completely, every drop, something most do anything to avoid. Once the last drop of blood leaves the victim’s body, he injects some kind of stimulant, and the victim becomes possessed. He turns on his sire and overpowers him, taking his blood back and the blood of his maker. It’s bloody, it’s pure madness.”

  He glanced away, then bit his lip and returned his attention to her. “I don’t remember any of it. I killed Cornell, sucked his life away. Didiane was his wife. After his death she told me he was a renegade, about to reveal secrets forbidden to tell.” Karey nodded, aware of the strong evidence that had sent Jordan winging across the Atlantic just after their wedding. “She lied. Vampires have their own disinformation campaigns, and Cornell was part of that. We were getting too close, and so he was about to confirm all the shit about garlic, coffins, crucifixes, reflections and the rest.”

  Karey’s eyes widened. “You mean that’s not real?”

  He smiled and shook his head. “All meant to lead investigators away from the truth.”

  “Which is?”

  For a moment, his eyes glazed over. Would he stop or tell her more? He sighed again. His hand moved over her belly and back to the curve of her waist in a gentle caress.

  When he looked back at her again his eyes were free of guile and she knew he would tell her the truth. “Vampires can exist by day, but their powers only come into force between sundown and sunrise. We have telepathy at all times, but everyone does. It’s a gift innate in all humans, but most don’t develop it. By day we have no more than anyone else. That’s our real weakness. If someone wants to kill us, they do it by day. If we can survive until sundown, then we can survive.”

  “So how are you different to the average human at night?” With Jordan telling her so calmly, it seemed like a fairy tale, but he was in deadly earnest. She had to think about this.

  “We live longer. We need to ingest fresh blood in order to survive. We are very physically strong. We have tremendous powers of recuperation, including recovery from disease. And we are forbidden to tell any of this to an ordinary human.”

  “Why?”

  “We’re not ready. We’ve lived in secret for centuries, most of us passing as ordinary human beings, and until the community is ready, we prefer to keep secret. Imagine the changes in society that would occur if any of this came to light.”

  “Can you change back?”

  He didn’t look at her eyes but at his hand, lying gently on her waist. “No.”

  She rolled on to her back, moving away from him. She didn’t know what to believe, but what he had said explained everything. Or nearly everything.

  “Karey?” His voice was gentle, understanding. “Do you want me to go now?”

  “No.” Her response came from instinct. She didn’t want him to leave her. Whatever, whoever he was, she still loved him. It would still hurt when he left, so much she wasn’t sure she could bear it.

  “Karey, I’m sorry. I didn’t want for this to happen.”

  “Neither did I. So what do we do? Give in? Why can’t we be together?” All pride gone, she turned back, reaching for his hands. “What’s to stop us being together? You say you love me still. Jordan, I still love you, I’ll never stop loving you. So why can’t we be together?”

  He let her hands remain in his. “Vampires have very low fertility rate. So it’s highly unlikely I’d ever give you children. I know you want them.”

  “I want you more.” She didn’t care, nothing mattered more than this.

  He bit his lip. “I thought it would be better for both of us if I made you angry with me, gave you a reason to forget me, to move on. Now I’ve ruined that.”

  “What made you change your mind?”

  “Necessity. Making love to you was the only way I could get Susannah to leave. But before that, I realized how much I’d hurt you. I’d hoped you didn’t love me as much as I love you, that you would forget me, or at least curse me, and find somebody else. I wasn’t fair, was I?”

  So much for her trying to conceal her pain from him. “It hurt more than I could ever have imagined to lose you. It shocked me, the depth of it.”

  He leaned down and kissed her, a gentle touch of his lips on hers. “I’m so sorry. I made a terrible mistake. But there’s another reason why we can’t be together, love.”

  “Why?”

  “If they find out how much you know, they’ll kill us both.”

  The words came so flatly she doubted she’d heard right. “What?”

  “We’re a closed, secret society. They’ll kill you if they know how much I’ve told you. If you know about us.”

  “I can keep quiet.”

  “Not if they find a Sorcerer to strip your mind and reveal what you know.” He shuddered. “I swear, if I ever thought that would happen, I’d kill you first myself.” He met her eyes again, and all she saw was bleak devastation in the cool grey depths. “I’ll have to remove a lot of what I’ve told you tonight. Take it from your mind.”

  “You can do that?”

  He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “To protect you, I have to.”

  Karey felt his tongue move softly between her knuckles and something inside her melted. “I can’t bear it. I can’t, Jordan. Can’t we take our chances? Isn’t there something we can do?”

  He turned her hand and kissed her wrist. “I don’t know.”

  The bleakness in his voice alerted her that something else was wrong. Something he wasn’t telling her. “Tell me.”

  He shook his head, his hair caressing her skin. “It’s not important. It doesn’t matter.”

  It
was something that concerned him, something he didn’t want to feel. She went over what he had just told her, and realized what he was afraid of. “If you stayed with me, you’d have to watch me age and die, wouldn’t you?”

  He looked up at her, shamefaced and she knew she’d hit the mark. “I don’t know if I can bear it.”

  “And there’s no way you can convert me, or pass the longevity on?”

  He shook his head. “If I convert you, you’ll take my blood and cause my death. I felt badly enough about Cornell, a man I’d never met before that night, a man I thought was evil until recently. How will you feel if you kill me, even knowing it was necessary? Didiane kept me apart from the truth, told me lies about Cornell, and it’s only since I’ve come home to New Orleans I’ve begun to understand the truth.”

  He sat up, drawing up his knees and resting his chin on them. The dim light from the bedside lamp illuminated his dark hair, striking glints of red. “I’m in danger because I killed Cornell. Didiane must know something of what I’ve learned by now, and she’ll be after me, after us both if she knows what I’ve told you. She wouldn’t think twice about destroying us. That’s why I’ve let you in so far, so you can be on your guard. That, and our problems with the Sharmans.”

  Karey let her gaze rove over the man who was, after all, still her husband. His body was leaner, fitter than before, but he was still rangy, still long legged. Years of working in front of a computer desk had never done much for Jordan’s bearing.

  She remembered the shock of seeing him for the first time at the cemetery, realizing he was standing tall for a change. His hair was slightly longer, but his eyes were the same clear, dark gray; they had been the first things she had seen on the morning after her wedding, and thought they were the only ones she ever wanted to see in that way for the rest of her life.

  “This is too much. I can’t take it.” She didn’t realize she’d spoken out loud until she saw the concern in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, so sorry. Perhaps I should have made you hate me. It would have been easier for us both. It’s what I tried to do. But I couldn’t bear it. I still can’t.”

  She stroked him from his shoulder to his waist, loved the way he stretched under her caress, like a cat. “We’ll work something out. We have to.”

  His eyes held such a bleak expression, she knew he’d decided to leave her. “Yes, we will.” He only said that to appease her.

  She wouldn’t take it. “I mean it, Jordan.”

  He smiled, but the warmth didn’t reach his eyes, which remained stark. “I know you do.”

  There wasn’t much point in her arguing with him. He had made up his mind. She would just have to change it, that was all. “What do you plan to do?”

  The warmth returned to his face. He thought she had given in. “I have to protect you. I think you should leave Belle Sauvage.”

  “Why?”

  He watched her, his cheek resting against his knees. “Because you’re in danger.”

  “How do you know? I thought you’d blocked Susannah’s entrance to my mind?”

  He lifted his head, lay down again and reached for her. Willingly, she went into his arms, lying with him against the cool sheets, twining her legs with his. “You already know ghosts have some kind of wavelength. We discovered that much while I was still at Hosts to Ghosts.”

  “Yes, we did, but it’s experimental work. We haven’t proved it yet.”

  “It’s true. These ghosts have your wavelength. That means they can control you.”

  She laughed, feeling her breasts move deliciously against his chest. “So a medium has all kinds of wavelengths?”

  “Just wider than most.” He folded his arms around her as though that action could protect her against anything. She certainly felt as though he could. She could happily stay there forever. “Vampires, or the children of vampires, not all of whom are vampires themselves, can communicate and control ghosts. That depends on the relative strengths of each side. I thought that as a new made I wouldn’t have much power, but after my tussle with Susannah, I think I was wrong. Probably my research helps, but I can reach her and talk with her.”

  She stared at him, eyes wide. “You know what that means for the company.”

  He stroked her hair as if he couldn’t help but touch her. “We’ll talk about that another time. Right now it means I can protect you to a certain extent. I can put a block in your mind, erect a barrier to prevent them possessing you again, but I need a couple of things in place to do that.”

  “Such as?”

  She turned her face up to his and he kissed her, as naturally as breathing. When he drew away, they were both breathing a little heavier. “I need your permission.” He kissed her again. “And your blood.”

  Seized by sudden terror that rose up inside her without warning, she put both hands against his chest and pushed hard. “Let me go, Jordan, let me go!”

  He could do this, he could take her blood. He could even kill her. He had changed, who knew how much? Horror gripped her when he tightened his hold and refused to release her. Pushing changed to flailing. She set all her strength against him, and when she threw her head back and threatened to scream he kissed her, blocking her cries. She felt him in her mind. Hush, mon amour, tais-toi. “I won’t do anything without your consent, I swear by everything I hold holy. By my love for you, I swear I won’t. Be quiet now.”

  Eventually she stilled, held fast in his arms, her sudden panic subsiding as quickly as it had risen. “Will it hurt?”

  “No, I’ll make damn sure it doesn’t. I don’t need much. I need part of me to rest in you every moment of every day to protect you while you’re here at the house. I can’t allow Didiane to read your mind and I need to erect a barrier to block her, but not one she’ll suspect. I need to go deep for that.”

  “Will it always be there?” She felt her panic still inside her. It had been instinctive, born of her fear of control, of anyone controlling her.

  “Yes, ma chaton, it will, but we don’t have to take advantage of it. While we’re here, I’ll use it. That’s all. I want to ensure the spirits in this place can never possess you again. They’ll come after you, now they know this is their way back into the land of the living.”

  Abruptly she turned, so her back was to him, but he moved close, nestling against her. His cock moved, beginning to harden again. “I don’t know what to believe. Are you sure you need to do this? Isn’t there some way I can control the possession. Oh Jordan, we’re so close!”

  “It’s too dangerous, Karey. Please believe me, you can’t let them back in. I don’t know if I could free you again if Susannah gained that kind of control.”

  She knew he was right. It was too dangerous. She didn’t know enough about it, she hadn’t the power to control the possession. She wanted to hit something in her frustration. So close!

  “Let me stay with you tonight, Karey. I’ll make sure nobody comes near you, no spirits, nothing. Do you want to sleep?”

  “Not yet. I need to think.”

  “You can think any time.” He kissed her shoulder and her upper arm, sliding down to her shoulder blade. “Let me help you to sleep.” He slid down her body, pressing kisses to her back, her waist and the upper curve of her ass.

  Karey felt helpless to resist. This was what she wanted, after all, and his touches were more than seductive. “Did Didiane teach you these tricks?” she said, and could have bitten her tongue out. Always at the back of her mind she had remembered that Didiane had been Jordan’s lover. Jealousy spiked through her, even though she now understood many of his reasons. “Did you have to, Jordan?”

  He came back up the bed and rolled her on to her back, leaning over her. “No, I didn’t have to. I have no excuses, Karey. Didiane was my mentor and my teacher, but she didn’t have to be my lover. I was weak, scared and helpless and she took me for all of that. All the way. She made me feel responsible for her, telling me Cornell had terrorized her. But I didn’t have to go to bed with
her. I did, Karey, and I’m sorry for it, but it’s done. I don’t ask for forgiveness. I don’t deserve it, but I can promise you that is over. I won’t go back to her, ever. Whatever happens.”

  “I forgive you.” As soon as the words left her lips Karey realized that was right for her. Something relaxed inside her. It was as though she needed to forgive more than Jordan needed her to forgive him.

  “You shouldn’t. You really shouldn’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’ll make me your slave forever.” He bent and covered her lips with his before she could say anything else. She reached up, drawing him close, knowing this, at least, was right. Her breasts pressed against the hard muscle of his chest, and she felt all woman when she opened her thighs for him.

  She hadn’t realized how strong he had become until he sat up, still holding her close, and lifted on to his knees. She sat astride his thighs, his cock deep inside her, and gazed down at him. It wasn’t so much the movement as the effortlessness with which he accomplished it, as though her weight was nothing at all to him.

  He leaned in to nuzzle her breasts, murmuring to her. “I’ve always loved these. They were the first thing I noticed about you, your gorgeous breasts. You wore a tight white pullover to your interview, and I looked up when you came in. You made me want you even then. Instant erection.” He washed his tongue over her nipple, returning to suck it deep into his mouth.

  She managed to gasp, “And I’ve always loved you doing that,” before a shuddering climax overtook her. He continued to nuzzle, to fill her, to move within her in a sinuous movement that increased her sensitivity, made her throw her head back and cry his name.

  Gentle loving turned to hard, driving fucking when she dragged her down against him, pushing up hard to take all he could. “Karey, I’ll never love anyone like this again, never!” Desperation colored his words.